MANILA, Philippines?Not one but four supposedly confidential documents have been issued by the World Bank in justifying its blacklisting of three Filipino contractors and the cancellation of a $150-million loan to partially fund the construction and repair of 10 national roads in the country.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said there appeared to be ?confusion? concerning the four documents because the document given in November 2007 to the Department of Finance?which, in turn, was ?submitted for appropriate action? to the Office of the Ombudsman?was a copy of the Referral Report.

Santiago said at Thursday?s Senate hearing that there were three more documents issued by the World Bank?the Notice of Sanction Proceedings (May 2008), the Decision of Sanctions Board (Jan. 12, 2009) and the Redacted Report to be posted on the World Bank website.

The Referral Report consists of nine pages, and was officially submitted to the Senate by Finance Secretary Margarito Teves during the hearing.

Teves described it as an ?executive summary? containing the blacklist order issued by the World Bank in January 2009. But Santiago said it was actually issued more than two years ago.

Santiago said the Notice of Sanction Proceedings was received by the contractors blacklisted by the World Bank for purported corrupt and fraudulent practices?E.C. de Luna Construction Corp., Cavite Ideal International Construction and Development Corp., and CM Pancho Construction Inc.

?Now, apparently, when the media discusses the so-called World Bank report, it is referring to the Notice of Sanction Proceedings which is a very thick document,? she said.

Quoting a report by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Santiago said the Notice was ?extensive but conflicting documentation.?

She said the Notice was nothing more than a compilation of all the ?unedited running account of all the witnesses? interviewed over two years by the World Bank.

However, she said, the World Bank failed to make sense of it by refusing to make a ?judicial comment,? and even ?accepting all the accounts ... and exerted minimal effort to corroborate stories by interviewees.?

She said there was no conclusion on whether the testimonies were admissible or not.

The third document, the Decision of Sanctions, was also sent to the three contractors. Santiago dubbed this the ?World Bank decision.?

The last, the Redacted Report, is ?an edited report which is still in the process of being finalized,? she said.

?Very scared contractors?

Sen. Panfilo Lacson presented a copy of the Notice of Sanction Proceedings to senators and reporters.

?Most of them are interviews with very scared contractors,? he told reporters. ?One contractor could only repeatedly say the situation was too dangerous, but then he was able to share certain information for the Ombudsman to pursue.?

Lacson could be referring to Li Peng, the general manager of the China Geo-Engineering Philippines Corp.

Li Peng spoke with World Bank investigators on Nov. 8, 2006, and admitted that his company would pay taxes to the New People?s Army and Muslim groups in areas under their control, and that he too would negotiate with ?the mayor, governor and congressman to do work in their areas? and pay them ?protection or commission fees.?

?If you do not cooperate with these politicians, they arrange for your contract to be terminated and re-bid, and so on,? Li Peng said.

Lacson conceded that the transcripts were not evidence but ?leads to pursue.?

He said the Notice contained names, places and amounts of kickbacks that, he stressed, were ?elements? that Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez ?should pursue if she wants to do her job.?

Original document

Santiago said the joint committee looking into the corruption scandal was using the Rules of Court, which was why she was so interested in getting the original copy of the four documents.

?No evidence shall be admissible other than the original document itself. That is the best evidence rule,? she said.

Without the original document, the joint committee can apply the ?secondary evidence rule,? which states that ?when the original document cannot be produced without bad faith,? secondary evidence consisting of an authenticated copy of the original ?may be admitted.?

?Not every paper thrown at the Senate will be the basis of an investigation,? Santiago said.

The other forms of evidence are the testimony of the witnesses, and electronic evidence such as Internet documents.

Santiago said some of the information cited by Sen. Panfilo Lacson came from the Internet.

This may be admitted as evidence if ?it complies with the Rules of Court on admissibility, authenticated by a digital signature, Supreme Court security procedure, or evidence showing integrity and reliability,? she said.

According to Santiago, the burden of proof is on the person seeking to introduce electronic evidence.

?[Internet documents] are special exceptions to the hearsay rule,? but only after being duly authenticated through the testimony of the custodian or other witnesses, she said.

Sensitive info

In a statement issued early Thursday night, the World Bank said it has a good reason for keeping its Referral Report confidential.

?The Referral Report contained sensitive information which may be relevant to investigations in the Philippines, and made no judgment as to whether the laws of the Philippines had been violated. This was the reason it was shared on a strictly confidential basis?to allow the investigative authorities in the Philippines to undertake their own investigation and reach their own conclusions,? the World Bank said.

The World Bank said its investigations proved that certain parties had violated its rules in the implementation of projects that it was funding?the reason it blacklisted the three contractors.

To assist Ombudsman

But it clarified that its investigations made no conclusion as to whether the contractors had violated Philippine laws.

The World Bank said it was willing to further assist the Office of the Ombudsman and provide other vital information needed.

?We welcome the Philippine government?s initiative to follow up on the World Bank?s decision to debar several foreign and Philippine firms on the basis of collusion. The Senate hearing and the announced investigations by the Ombudsman and the National Bureau of Investigation all contribute to our shared goal of improving governance and fighting corruption in the Philippines,? it said. With a report from Michelle V. Remo